Ax (Valiant Comics)
| Alignment = | Gender = | Birthplace = Seattle, Washington | Status = | Occupation = Hacker | Family = | Affiliations = | Creators = | First = ( ) | Last = }} Buford - or Ax - is an obnoxious self-professed computer wizard with a natural affinity for electronics. When Pete Stanchek, a psionic of extraordinary power and the leader of the Harbinger Resistance, a loose organization of renegades, activates his ability to communicate with computers, Ax becomes one of the most dangerous individuals in the world, and soon graduates from taking money from ATMs to hacking into financial institution computers. Power-hungry, Ax craves new technologies like the Manowar Class Armor and the nanites developed at Project Rising Spirit, a thirst that leads him to challenge such heroes as X-O Manowar and Bloodshot, who possess what he desires. Ax’s unwavering pursuit makes him the stuff of legend when he kills Bloodshot and takes his blood, the mythical Blood of Heroes. History One Small Step... On July 6th 1991 in the Lake Union Mall, Ax waited for the members of the Harbinger resistance after Faith Herbert, a plucky fangirl with the power of flight, called him when they found his bulletin board notice to help them break into locked-up disks they took from the Harbinger Foundation. When Ax took them to his father’s company, he impressed them when he figured out the keypad code and let them in. When Pete told his girlfriend, Kris Hathaway, to give Ax the disks, he charged them $500 USD and Kris told him that having a talent did not made up for his being a lowlife, but then he told her that to get over in the world she had to either give it or take it the hard way. An hour later, as Ax was unable to break into the disks’ encryption and said that he would only try once more and was keeping the money, Kris asked him why they called him Ax and he told her that it was because he played his guitar as if he was wired to it. After Pete and Kris talked for a minute, he touched Ax in the head and, all of a sudden, he heard an incredible buzzing coming from the computer. After the disks told Ax how to open them, he opened a file labeled extraterrestrial landing sites, that Kris thought it was a joke, while Pete believed it was a code word, and Faith suggested they go check out one of the addresses. When John Torkelson, a goliath who possessed enhanced strength and durability, asked what they were going to do with Ax and Faith said he was dangerous and could tap into NORAD and start World War III like in War Games, Kris asked Pete if he could un-pop him and he told her that he could make him forget what happened. Pleadingly, Ax asked Pete not to take his ability away as he had spent his entire life looking at the world through a keyhole and now the doors were wide open. While Faith thought they could harness Ax’s power for good and Pete believed he deserved a chance, Kris and John were certain he was insane. When Pete asked Charlene Dupré, a fiery Southern Bell, what she thought, she did not want to voice her opinion, but he coerced her into voting and she told him that everyone deserved a chance. That night, Ax and the others followed a map to a clearing by a waterfall in the Olympic National Park, and while they looked around before it got dark, an electronic hum that came from a tree told Ax that the stump concealed a landing beacon inside. At Ax’s suggestion, the group stayed the night to wait for something to land, unaware that the Spider Aliens, a race of blood-thirsty extraterrestrial aliens, were watching them. After Faith returned with burgers from McDonald’s and they ate dinner, John wondered how long they were going to wait and Ax accused him of being afraid of the dark. While Faith told Ax that he did not have to be a jerk all the time, he suddenly got the feeling that something high-tech was coming their way right before a Spider Might opened fire on them. After the smoke cleared, Ax and the others laid safely behind a shield Pete raised soon as Ax warned him. After John destroyed the tank while Pete covered him, Ax shot one of the aliens in the back with his own gun while they ran away much to the other’s chagrin. Coldly, Ax said that no one would miss the alien, then he pushed a button on a unit in the alien’s belt that had been screaming at him that activated a subterranean hangar, and as the earth trembled, a Spider Alien Transport vessel emerged from the ground. As they made their way inside the ship, Kris asked Pete if he really thought that it came from another planet, and while Faith was certain that it did, Pete suggested that they leave before the aliens came back. Enthralled with the alien technology, Ax activated the ship’s engines, and as the vessel shot up into space, the auto-pilot took them on a pre-programmed course. Though John threatened to rip Ax’s throat out unless he took them down, he told him there was nothing he could do. Two hours and thirty-six minutes later, the vessel headed to a Spider Alien Moonbase on the dark side of the moon and Ax could barely contain his excitement even though John threatened to make him pay for taking them there. After a docking clamp pulled the ship inside the alien base and they exited the ship, Pete suggested that they look around for a way to open up the docking bay again so Ax could fly them out, but then they all lost consciousness and collapsed. While they were all out cold, Rexo, a Vietnam veteran the aliens transformed into a bionic enforcer, grabbed Ax and said that he might be useful, while a group of Spider Soldiers took the others to an exam funnel. Five months later, Ax awoke Faith from stasis and told her that he made a deal with the aliens to help them build a ship big enough to get them out of their solar system and they agreed to let him have her to keep him company. Shocked, Faith rejected Ax and awoke Pete, and even though Ax tried to stop her, Pete rendered him unconscious. Moments later, after Pete and Faith woke up the others, they left Ax cold on the floor while they went to look for their ship, but when they turned a corner, they ran across Rexo and the Spider Soldiers, who blocked their path to the transport vessel. Ax soon recovered and followed the others to an observation deck just moments after Rexo and the Spider Soldiers had captured them except for Charlene. Though Rexo offered to let kill Pete and the others, Ax told him to let the aliens eat them, especially Charlene, who reminded him of all the girls who thought they were too good for him but let any jock or preppy have their way with them. Pleadingly, Charlene told Ax that she wanted him to go with them and that she honestly thought he was cute. As she told him that she could have had her if he wanted to, Charlene threw herself at Ax’s feet and said that she could make him feel good. As Rexo ordered the soldiers to drag her and the others away to have their blood drained, Charlene burnt Ax’s testicles and stood up to confront Rexo, who ordered the soldiers to kill her. Where The Love Light Gleams... Inside the Spider Alien moonbase on the far side of the moon, Charlene Dupré lit herself ablaze and warned Rexo to stay away from him, but he called her a slut and threatened to skewer her for what she did to Ax and carve all her goodies off before he killed her. Frightened, Charlene warned Rexo that she would burn him, but he mockingly said that all the heat she was making would cook her friends before it did him major damage and then slapped with a blade that cut her face and told her that he hated girls and had no use for them since he was 90% bionic. While Rexo joked that Charlene made him a favor when she burnt Ax and made him more like him and now they had a lot more in common, she softened the floor beneath him and fell through it. While she freed Ax and the others from the tendrils, Charlene hoped she had not burned them before she figured on making the heat go into the floor. Worried that they were not safe, Pete said that they had to find the ship that brought them to the moon and ordered John to bring Ax with them. Shortly, Ax and the others boarded the vessel, and, as John warned Ax to take them home or he would take his face off, he activated the autopilot. When Ax fell on his knees in excruciating pain, Pete wondered if his injuries were severe and Kris, Faith, and Charlene looked at them and gave him first aid. As the ship neared Earth’s atmosphere, Pete worried that the aliens were waiting for them where they found the ship, so he carried it the rest of the way home, a feat that impressed Faith. On their way back to Savannah, John tossed Ax off the ship near Waycross, Georgia, and though Pete thought that it was kind of nasty to drop him in the middle of nowhere when he was hurt, the others told him that he was a traitor and no better than Rexo. The next morning in Seattle, Ax retrieved the foundation’s disks and the money that the resistance paid him from a locker in a Greyhound Bus Terminal and retuned home to pick up some clothes and his dog, Boba Fett. An hour later, Ax returned to his father’s company to see if there was anything in the disks he could use to get to the resistance before the Harbinger Foundation did, and, moments later, he found a list of three Harbinger Foundation training program expellees he thought would help him get even. Three nights later in Decatur, Georgia, Ax led Donald W. Tietz, a sociopath with sadistic tendencies, Eugen Mulholand, an extremely hostile anti-social recluse, and Frank C. Treese a paranoid- schizophrenic, to the shanty where John lived. While Ax wanted to check if John had any company, Eugene refused and they agreed that any friend of John was as good as dead. After Eugen opened fire on the shanty with his bazooka and John came running out, Ax warned them that it was going to take a long time to kill him. As Ax and the others piled on John, he tackled down Eugene, but then Donald skewered his heart with an electromagnetic javelin that inflicted him with great pain. After John swatted Donald out of his way and ran into the woods to escape, Ax ordered the others to go after him, and when they caught up with him outside a Christmas tree lot, Donald and Eugen continued their assault. An hour later, while Ax and the rogue Harbingers beat John down in the empty tree lot, Pete knocked Ax out just as he was about to hit John with a hammer. When Boba Fett attacked her, Ax urged him to tear her throat out, but then she knocked him off her with a rock. Before Kris could kill Boba, Ax pushed her against the ground and threatened to kill her with his hammer. As Ax threatened to molest Kris with his hammer, John pulled her off from on top of her and she kicked him in the testicles. While the resistance flew away from the lot, Ax and his rogues laid in the ground while the police arrived on the scene. Personality Powers and Abilities * Technopathy Equipment Notes Appearances Gallery File:Ax Harbinger-v1-3 001.jpg File:Ax Harbinger-v1-3 002.jpg File:Ax Harbinger-v1-4 001.jpg File:Ax Harbinger-v1-4 002.jpg File:Ax Harbinger-v1-4 003.jpg File:Ax Rai-v2-0 001.jpg Quotes References External links * Ax at Comic Book Database Category:Harbingers Category:Technopathy Category:Cyborgs